Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

It's Christmas Eve already!

It's Christmas Eve and all the presents are under the tree. Santa was a little early and filled the stockings already. (Very efficient.) Tonight is a Christmas eve party and then the big day. My brother and his GF are coming over for presents, stockings and brunch. I can't wait. I almost wish we could have some snow. Maybe just enough to be pretty.

End?

Deck the Halls

Our tree is all decorated. My grandmother would have loved this little picture.

I have her little mouse sewing room nativity scene in my sewing room. It is remarkably detailed for plastic figurines. I have some fabric and thread spools to add to the ambiance. :) She also had a little 2' tall plastic tree with eensy little ornaments. They aren't special ones, jsut what she could find that was 1" or smaller, so I think that I'll work on replacing them with teeny little sewing related ones. That would be cute.

The rest of our house is all decorated too. I have pine garland on all the wood trim above the windows, doors and room divides. It looks really festive!

A commission!

Looks like I might make a little cash from this sewing hobby. A co-worker wants a couple of my cute little Leaf Fairies. And she didn't even blink at my price. Woot!

Inconsistency

I'm back after a lot of sewing, knitting, very little gardening and hardly any bike riding. Brian is still in his band and has a couple of gigs coming up. If you're up for a bit of classic rock and country, his band (Skinny Joe) is playing at the Not So Boring Bar in Boring Oregon on December 1st, and at Ria's Bar in Sandy, Oregon on the 8th.

Rock Star!!!

Yesterday we headed out to Sandy, OR. My husband and his band were auditioning for a gig at a bar there. After a little trouble with the PA system, all was a go. They played two sets, an encore 8 songs and were hired for Feb 17th and there may be a possibility for a festival in July. Sweet! He is now officially a Rock Star.

La Bella

Today we went to the Portland Art Museum to see Titian's La Bella. The painting has never been exhibited in the US and Portland is her only west coast appearance. How lucky are we? I was surprised how much I remembered from college art history days. I was telling my husband about the details of the painting, and we turned around and pretty much everything I said was on the big description board behind us. Doh! But at least I got it all right. :) The painting is absolutely gorgeous. The brushwork is amazing - from the tiny almost invisible delicate ones on her face to the loose, sketchy ones giving life to her hair and the embroidery on her dress. I love how the lacy edges of her neckline are so diaphanous. Those velvet sleeves really do look like velvet too. Those fluffy white dots are where the velvet was slashed and ermine pulled through as a decorative element. The sleeves are detachable, and would have been hugely expensive back then. She is wearing earrings that would have been very trendy for the time. They look like ruby with pearl dangles.  She's holding a string of hollow metal beads that would have had perfume in them. People didn't bathe much, and Venice could be a bit odiferous as well. Hmm. Reminds me of spraying extra perfume on my scarf before riding TriMet. How things change?

Unfortunately, in this picture, you can't see the frame. The frame is a work of art all be itself and is the original one commissioned for the painting. A friend of Titian carved it to match. It is a giant, gold, heavy frame close to a foot wide. the border closest to the painting is acanthus leaves alternating with a 5 petal flower. For a frame so large and heavy, the curve of the acanthus and the delicacy of the flowers give it a lighter impression. The middle border was pierced with long ovals radiating away from the portrait. The piercing also lightens the heaviness of the frame. The outside edge was also carved, but apparently didn't make quite the impression that the flowers and leaves did. The whole effect though was grand, expensive and very feminine, much like La Bella herself.

Studio Update and a Yarn Shot

My new studio is almost complete. It looks great, and we've been calling it the Super-Cool-Awesome Building.  It just needs a couple more trim boards, a paint touch-up here and there and voila!  In another post I'll document the whole building process - pics and all, but today I'm just happy that tomorrow is move-in day. My sewing machine, fabric, yarn and spinning wheel are tired of the unfinished basement. I can't wait to get sewing again.

Since I don't have the pics together for the studio yet, how about a nice yarn shot? I just ordered this from a fabulous shop on Etsy - Edgewood Garden Studio. It will be fingerless mitts for Mom and I for Valentine's Day. I just got the skein wound up and I'm ready to go.

The Best Place to Start

The best place to start is at the beginning. In an attempt to begin with the 'perfect' first post, I have procrastinated starting at all. So here is the first post. Done is better than perfect. I think that will be my mantra for 2012.

I envision this blog being a record of my artistic travels. Welcome aboard!